Christmas takes a lot of planning...

I'll make all my gifts this Christmas she said.
It'll be less effort she said.

It is not less effort.

However, it does make for a much more rewarding Christmas day when your family appreciates the efforts involved. Give yourself about a week to prepare everything and you can do everyone's presents for a minimal cost. Here's the things I made this year:

A bowl.

And some decorations. (These did have gold wire inserted at a later date so that they actually hang, but I forgot to photograph them before I sent them off. I got too excited. Sorry.)

I'll keep this short and sweet. The bowl was pretty simple, I used terracotta air-dry clay, rolled flat with a freshly dropped autumnal leaf on top of it. Once the clay had reached the appropriate size, I used a knife to cut around the shape of the leaf. Once this had been achieved, I peel back the leaf and... voila. We have clay leaves. So easy. 

To attach two leaves together, simply use a little water as glue - the clay is water based, so it should just dissolve it a little, and dry as the clay air fires. If you want a proper bowl shape, that will sit properly, put your wet clay into a pre-existing bowl. A nice touch at this point is to bend the excess leaf edges over the sides a bit, it makes a nice, natural shape.

This is how to NOT hold a knife. I repeat... do NOT hold your knife like this. Also use an appropriately sized knife. This was hazardous. This was the holding of the knife in both the bowl and decoration production. It's a stupid plan. 

The clay takes 4-5 days to dry, and make sure it is totally dry before the next stage or you'll ruin EVERYTHING. 

Once the clay is dry, use a waterproofing agent before you paint it. This is very important. You can pick it up for just a few pounds from Amazon, don't skip this step.

Give the waterproofing agent a day or so to dry, I think it only takes about 10 hours to be fully dried.

Now for the fun bit. The painting. Being a little lazy, I chose to invest in spray paint. Montana outdoor spray paint, which is often used in graffiti, and so I'm fully aware will be hard-wearing, waterproof, fast drying and awesome. Protect EVERYTHING. Particularly yourself, you need to be in a well ventilated space, preferably outdoors, wear a mask, and no posh clothes, this paint gets everywhere, particularly into your lungs. I gave the decorations and the bowl about 3 coats. This is very fast drying stuff, so it doesn't take long at all.

 I added all the details with acrylic paint, this bit's up to you really, colour schemes and patterns are personal preferences and you can take as much or as little time as you like. This is the point at which I broke some of the decorations so be really careful, they are thin and very delicate.

Finally, for a glossy, professional finish, varnish them. Again, I went for a spray option. Laziness. Make sure you pick one that's non-yellowing, this could ruin all your efforts til now, varnish is the ONE thing you REALLY don't want to skimp on in this situation! Same instruction as the spray paint,  be careful with ventilation on this.

I hope all your Christmas' were warm and fuzzy, and I'm looking forward to filling this blog with more projects for the new year!
Have a lovely festive season.